BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dr. Larry Thompson, Chair
Dr. Larry R. Thompson is currently serving his 13th year as president of Ringling College of Art and Design. An energetic, innovative, and visionary community leader, Dr. Thompson is on a mission to transform arts and design higher education and to infuse business with creativity. He is passionate about shattering the myth of the starving artist™!
During his tenure as president of Ringling College, he has worked tirelessly to infuse his spirit of inclusion throughout the institution by celebrating diversity, encouraging freedom of expression, supporting new ways of teaching and learning, and taking risks to innovate and enhance the overall academic experience. Aside from his “full-time” job, Larry is involved in myriad volunteer endeavors. He is president for the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) and is Secretary of the President’s Council of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida (ICUF.) Locally, he is President of the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County and is a board member of the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, Coastal Behavioral Healthcare, the Community Health Corporation for Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Sarasota Season of Sculpture, Science and Environment Council of Sarasota County (SEC), and YEA Arts!, as well as the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County Partners Council. Prior to joining Ringling College, Thompson was President and CEO of the Flint Cultural Center in Michigan – a 30-acre campus encompassing the nine leading cultural institutions of the Greater Flint Area. He served in that capacity from 1993-1999. Before crossing the lake to Michigan, he was founding Director and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, where he held that post for four years. Thompson was responsible for making the Hall of Fame a reality, including raising the money for it, working with architect I. M. Pei to design it, and preparing it to be constructed. In his earlier career, Thompson served for seven years as Special Assistant to the President of The Ohio State University. His responsibilities involved working on legal issues affecting the University and serving as a management troubleshooter for various administrative departments. Larry Thompson is a lawyer and an educator. He received his Juris Doctorate summa cum laude from The Ohio State University and practiced law for a number of years with a large firm in Columbus. He has a Master of Science in educational administration and counseling from California State University Los Angeles. He was an adjunct professor in the Honors department at the University of Michigan-Flint and taught as an adjunct professor in the College of Law at Ohio State for six years.
Dr. Thompson has served previous terms with the Arts and Cultural Alliance, his current term runs 2009-2012.
Mary Bensel
Mary Bensel is the Executive Director of the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. Previously, she served as director of touring and sales for Troika Entertainment based in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Prior to that, Mary spent ten years as general manager of the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall in Ft Myers, FL.
Before coming to Florida Mary spent fifteen years in Philadelphia as general manager for the Walnut Street Theatre and the Merriam (former Shubert) Theatre.
She received her BA from Mansfield University in Speech, Theatre and English and her MA from the University of Pittsburgh in Acting and Directing. Mary was a founding member of the Pittsburgh Public Theatre and served as Marketing Director/Press Agent for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, the Arizona Theatre Company, and Stage West.
Ms. Bensel is serving her first term with the Arts and Cultural Alliance, 2010-2013
Murray Chase
Murray Chase is the executive/artistic director of Venice Theatre, a position he has held since 1995. He is an active participant—and former board member--of Florida Theatre Conference and Southeastern Theatre Conference (two terms each).
Currently he serves as a board member-at-large for American Association of Community Theatre, with ongoing work as a member of the national Festival Commission and as an Endowment Trustee.
He has served as a frequent grant review panelist for both the Florida Arts Council and the Mississippi Arts Commission. Recently he represented the United States as a delegation member to the World Congress of the International Amateur Theatre Association. (Venice Theatre will host the 2010 International Amateur Theatre Festival, June 22-27). He is also a former chair of the CEC for Sarasota County Arts Council and a former president of Venice MainStreet.
Mr. Chase has served previous terms with the Arts and Cultural Alliance, his current term runs 2009-2012.
Linda M. DiGabriele, VP
Linda M. DiGabriele currently serves on the board of the Sarasota County Arts Council as both the VP and chair of the Cultural Executives Committee (CEC).
Ms. DiGabriele joined Asolo Rep in 1973 and is now the Asolo's Managing Director. A graduate of F lorida State University, her professional theatre experience includes acting and directing.
Ms. DiGabriele has served on an advisory panel for the National Endowment for the Arts, for five years with the John F. Kennedy Center's Theatre for Young Audiences, on the executive committee for the League of Resident Theatres (LORT), and is past president of the Florida Professional Theatre Association. She also received the Florida Professional Theatre Association Richard G. Fallon Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.
Ms. DiGabriele is serving her first term with the Arts and Cultural Alliance, 2009-2012.
Sally Faron
Sally R. Faron joined La Musica as Executive Director in 1989. After a 21-year career as teacher and administrator, including principal, in private schools for girls, she became involved in arts organizations in New York. She was founder of the Suffolk Music Guild, on the board of the Suffolk Symphony, and director of the Young Artist Competition until 1986. In 1981, she joined the Bach Aria Festival and Institute at the State University of New York at Stony Brook where she served in various administrative capacities until 1989. In 2004, she was invited to join the Board of Directors of Key Chorale.
Her other activities included serving as a research associate on an NIMH grant in Ivory Coast, West Africa in 1965-6, editing a cookbook, and with her husband, writing on South American Indians for encyclopedias in the 70s and 80s.
Ms. Faron is serving her first term with the Arts and Cultural Alliance, 2009-2012.
John Alan Fischer, Treasurer
John Fischer currently serves on the board of the Sarasota County Arts Council as both the Treasurer and the Cultural Executives Committee (CEC) representative for small arts organizations.
He is the Executive Director of the Artist Series of Sarasota, President of the Manasota Theatre Organ Society, Treasurer of the Sarasota Music Club, and Treasurer of the Seminole District for the Florida Federation of Music Clubs. He also recently completed terms as Vice President for Communications of the Sarasota Orchestra and Vice President for Communications for the Sarasota Opera Guild.
Mr. Fischer has been a resident of Sarasota County since 2001.
Mr. Fischer served a previous term on the Arts and Cultural Alliance, his current term runs 2009-2012.
Richard Hopkins
With 39 years of professional theatre experience, 29 years at Florida Studio Theatre, Mr. Hopkins is the chief executive officer of Florida Studio Theatre. Since his arrival at FST in 1980, Mr. Hopkins has guided the theatre from a small touring company to a nationally recognized regional theatre, which impacts over 160,000 adults and children annually.
Mr. Hopkins began his professional theatre career as a resident actor with the Asolo State Theatre in Sarasota. He was a founding director of what is now American Stage Company in St. Petersburg and served as its producing director from 1974-1980. Mr. Hopkins has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University. He has served as a theatre specialist for the U.S. Department of State and taught at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. He served as the President of the Florida Professional Theatres Association from 1983-1985 and on the Theatre Panel for the Florida Arts Council. Mr. Hopkins has directed numerous Mainstage and Cabaret productions at FSTand is the recipient of numerous awards including the Arts Leadership Award from the Sarasota County Arts Council and the Richard G. Fallon Award from the Florida Professional Theatre Association.
Mr. Hopkins is serving his first term with the Arts and Cultural Alliance, 2009-2012.
rhopkins@floridastudiotheatre.org
Pedro Reis, Secretary
Pedro Reis currently serves on the board of the Sarasota County Arts Council as both the Secretary and the Cultural Executives Committee (CEC) representative for medium-sized arts organizations.
In 1997, Mr. Reis, a twenty-five year circus veteran and Dolly Jacobs combined their experience, passion and dreams and created Circus Sarasota, a one-ring European style circus that Reis hoped would continue the legacy of the circus in Sarasota started by John Ringling.
Mr. Reis was a recipient of the Arts Council’s Arts Leadership Award in 2004. He was inducted into the John and Mable Ringling Circus Museum Hall of Fame, and recently into the Sarasota Video Archives. In 2009, Mr. Reis was also inducted into the Circus Ring of Fame on St. Armands Circle.
Mr. Reis is serving his first term with the Arts and Cultural Alliance, 2009-2012.
Bruce Rodgers
Bruce Rodgers is a musician, writer, administrator, producer and playwright with meanderings into corporate consulting in creativity and computer software design. He was a co-writer of Innovation Inc – A Guide to Creativity in the Workplace and has contributed several chapters to a nationally popular software book. He received his undergraduate degree in Music Education from SUNY Postdam and his graduate degree in Creative Writing from Indiana University. Between university studies, he served three years with the West Point Band and was a lyricist with the famed BMI Musical Theatre Workshop in New York under Lehman Engle.
He first came to Sarasota in 1991 as a playwright when the Asolo produced his play, Lost Electra, winner of the Rosenthal New Play Prize at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. With a deep commitment to arts education, he serves on the board of the Florida Alliance for Arts Education. He also is a board member of the Alliance of Artist Communities and the advisory board for Community Haven and Adult Services. He is currently the founding Executive Director of the Hermitage Artist Retreat on the beach on Manasota Key, in Englewood, Florida.
Mr. Rodgers is serving his first term with the Arts and Cultural Alliance, 2009-2012.
Marshall Rousseau
Marshall Rousseau is the interim director of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.
Mr. Rousseau is serving his first term with the Arts and Cultural Alliance, 2009-2012.
Arts and Cultural Alliance Staff
Jim Shirley, Executive Director
JShirley@sarasotaarts.org
941-365-5118, ext. 307
Brittany Norwood, Communications Manager
BNorwood@sarasotaarts.org
941-365-5118, ext. 304
Cindy Balistreri, Business Coordinator
CBalistreri@sarasotaarts.org
941-365-5118, ext. 301
Fern Tavalin, Grants Director
Ftavalin@sarasotaarts.org
